The improved economic picture could lead to workers demanding bigger pay rises
to get their "fair share", according to Frances O’Grady, general secretary
of the Trades Union Congress.

Miss O’Grady said workers who had been stuck with pay freezes were entitled to ask for their “fair share” from the economic recovery.

She also said that strikes were popular and said that she might accept a year’s pay to retire, as her predecessor Brendan Barber received last year.

In comments ahead of the TUC’s annual congress which starts on Sunday in Bournemouth, Miss O’Grady said that : “If the economy is on the road to recovery then people will want their fair share of the reward.

“They have been told to tighten their belts and they are looking for having a fair share of that recovery.”

She singled out companies in the construction, food, finance “could and should be ensuring that every member of staff gets at least the living wage”.

Miss O’Grady says that strikes over recent years have been “overwhelmingly popular”.

She said that 60 per cent of members of the public polled about strikes last November supported strikes: “If they think it is a just cause people support it.”

But she admitted that she has never personally been on strike before, saying: “I have never been called out on strike.”

Miss O’Grady also admitted that she could accept a year’s pay to retire when her time as head of the TUC.

Brendan Barber, her predecessor, controversially received an extra £104,000 - just over a year's pay - when he retired at the end of last year. According to the TUC’s annual return, published in July, Mr Barber’s total pay in 2012 was £296,599.

She said the payment, which was agreed by the TUC’s ruling body, was “custom and practice” and admitted she might accept such a payment when she retired.

Miss O’Grady, who is paid £107,000 a year, said that there was no clause for the payment in her contract but any question about whether she would accept it.

Asked if she would also accept a year’s pay to retire, she said: “It is a hypothetical question and we are a long way off from me retiring. It is certainly a hell of a lot lower than top directors award themselves.”